The first few weeks at Hogwarts went by like a blur to Lily and Karina. This was the life Karina always wanted, she ached to belong, and now, she did. Lily was enthralled with everything around her. She excelled in Charms, as Mr. Ollivander said her wand was excellent for charms. She was soon top of the class and even older students asked for her advice sometimes.
Karina, on the other hand, loved Defense Against the Dark Arts. Fighting against evil, it was like that books she read, and always wished she was a part of.
The first week was hectic, but Lily and Karina never had such a wonderful time.
Flashback
"Thank you Ms. Evans, five points to Gryffindor."
Lily smiled so much her cheeks hurt.
"Way to go Lils, your fist points towards the House!" Kari whispered enthusiastically to her.
McGonagall turned around and raised her eyebrow and Karina quickly quieted down.
End Flashback
But, all good things must have a bad thing. Or in their case, a few egotistical males and the Slytherins.
It was the first Friday of term and Kari and Lily were lost. They were trying to find the Potions class, but were having no such luck.
"Where can it be!" Kari wailed looking around.
"I don't know, but we are going to have detention for a week now!" Lily complained.
"Well, lets try down this way and see if we get anywhere." Kari said, a little desperately.
"Alright." Lily agreed, and the two walked down the corridor.
Finally, they made it to the class and only two minutes late.
"Sorry Professor." Kari whispered as they sat down at a table in the back.
"Tardiness will not be accepted, twenty points from Gryffindor." the woman sneered at them, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I am Professor Hasta. In this class I will accept no foolishness because someone could get hurt. Now, take out some parchment and copy this down." Professor Hasta rapped the board, and a whole board of writing appeared.
Karina and Lily, flushed, took out their parchment and quills and were scratching away when Sirius raised his hand.
"Yes Black, what is it?" Professor Hasta snapped.
"Can we take out a quill too?" he asked innocently.
"Five points from Gryffindor for you unneeded comment."
"But do I need a quill?"
"Yes you need a quill Black, and five more points from Gryffindor."
Kari looked over at him and rolled her eyes. 'Stupid class clown.'
She took out some parchment and wrote down the notes, then took out another piece and wrote down,
Do you think this whole class will be like that?
Lily looked at it, then over at the four boys who were laughing at something. Then, Lily wrote,
I have a feeling, that they will be those boys…
Karina looked at Lily and heaved her shoulders in an inaudible sigh.
After class, Lily and Kari hurried out to drop their books off and maybe start some homework. Before they even left the dungeons though, someone called "Maybe you Mudbloods should get a watch and you won't be late anymore!"
"Was he talking to us?" Kari asked.
"I don't know. But I swear if one more person calls me a mudblood, I'm going to murder." Lily said through clenched teeth.
"I know, I just wanna strangle them nice and slowly." Kari started, when she heard a loud crash.
Lily started to go back when she saw James and Sirius beating up Snape. The before even coming out of her trance, she walked right up and yelled, "Stop it! What are you doing?"
Karina hurried back there and tried to pull Sirius away. Lily grabbed James and pulled him away.
"What was the meaning of that?" Kari screeched.
"He…He called you the 'M' word." Sirius said, looking up at them.
"He shouldn't have done that." James simply stated wiping his mouth where some blood was trickling down.
"Why does it matter to you?" they asked at the same time.
"It's an insult, they were only trying to help." Remus said, helping Sirius up.
"That's no excuse. You can get loads of points taken off for fighting. That was just dumb. And if we ever need help, we'll ask." Kari said and started to walk off with Lily at her side.
"Well that was nice. We were just trying to help." James muttered and ground his toe into the floor.
"You consider that help?" Remus asked smiling.
"If we had ground him into a pulp, he wouldn't have ever said that again." Sirius answered.
Remus sighed, "Alright then, come on. Peter is probably already eating dinner."
The three guys walked up to the common room and saw Lily and Kari sitting on a chair, they ignored them and went up to their dormitory.
Lily and Kari stormed up to the common room and plopped onto a chair.
"I lost my appetite." Kari said.
"I'm hungry. Please let's go to dinner." Lily said, starting to beg.
"No. I don't want to see them."
"They were only trying to help. Come on."
"Go on. I'll stay here. I'm going to get some homework done."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I'll see you in about fifteen minutes then."
"Alright."
Lily headed out the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall. She looked around the Gryffindor table and saw the other Gryffindor first years.
"Hey, can I sit with you?" Lily asked a little shyly.
"Umm… I don't know…" Gina said uncertainly.
"Okay then." Lily said, and sat down at the end of the table by herself. She seemed to have lost her appetite too. Without eating anything, she went back to the common room.
As soon as Lily left, Kari went up to the dormitory and screamed into her pillow. As soon as she finished, Kari went down to the common room and started on her homework. She had to write two essays, one for Transfiguration and the other for Potions. She frowned at them both, and then heard someone say, "That face doesn't become you."
"Lily! You're back early! Didn't you eat?" Kari asked looking at her friend's face, "What's wrong?"
"You know Gina? One of the other Gryffindor first years, well, I asked if I could sit with her, and she gave me this look, like I was this bug that she wanted squished. Like Petunia looked at me when she heard I was a witch." Lily explained, looking at her feet.
"Lily, it don't matter what they say."
Lily started to giggle.
"What?"
"Having lived in America shows through when you're mad."
"Hey, don't insult mai southern accent." Kari said in a southern drawl.
"Oh no, never." Lily said in mock amazement.
At that moment, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter came into the common room. Lily and Kari didn't glance at them once, but started on their transfiguration homework.
From that day, things were rather tense between the two groups. Especially when Snape was around. James and Sirius took to insulting him and trying to curse him every time he was around, and that just made Lily and Kari even angrier. Then, the night before Christmas break, all hell broke loose in the common room.
"Why do you find it necessary to curse him every time he's around!" Lily shouted, her face starting to turn red.
"Well he DOES call you the 'M' word every time he gets in your hearing range!" James yelled back, even though they were only three feet from each other. By now, the whole common room was staring.
"So! It doesn't bother us, why does it bother you!" Kari shouted back.
"He…he's insulting you and your family and you don't care!? We're just trying to help!" Sirius retorted.
"WE DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" Kari and Lily screamed back at the same time. They stormed up to their dormitory while everyone was left staring at James and Sirius. Remus walked up to them and led them to their own dormitory to calm down. They were both red in the face and breathing rather hard. Peter followed, a bit timidly though.
Christmas break came and went and by now, the real serious students were starting to get to studying.
"Have you seen my History of Magic notes?" Lily asked, rummaging around her area of the dormitory.
"Umm, I might have them, I think that was the day I fell asleep during class and I borrowed them from you." Kari said, reaching into her bag, and pulling out a two foot long piece of parchment, "Here."
Lily took it and started rewriting all the important facts on it.
"Lily, its only February you know?" Karina whispered.
"Only February! No, I need to start studying! If not I'll never get it done!" Lily started to rant.
The next few months flew by, and too soon it seemed that Lily and Karina were sitting in their own compartment on the train headed back home.
"I don't want to go home." Karina said, rather quietly.
"Why?" Lily said startled.
"My dad has gone back to drinking again, and you know how he gets."
Lily put a comforting arm around her friends shoulder, "I'm sure you'll be okay."
"It's not me I'm worried about, it's Sam and mom. Sam is tuning sixteen and she wants emancipated from home, but dad won't let her. I have a feeling this summer is going to be awful, and you know my feelings are usually right."
"Nothing bad will happen. And if it does, come stay with me." Lily said firmly.
"That's the problem! I can't let him hurt them!"
Lily was speechless.
"Don't worry about it Lily. I'll live."
Lily nodded, and soon enough they were at King's Cross and unloading their trunks.
"LILY! KARINA! OVER HERE!" a voice called.
"MOM!" Lily shrieked and ran over to her mother's warm embrace.
Kari walked slowly over to them.
"Oh Kari love! Its so good to see you!" Mrs. Evans hugged Kari tightly, "Your mom should be here shortly. Jim is working, and so is Mark, so it'll be just us girls tonight. You and your mother will be staying with us!"
"KARINA!"
"MOMMY!" Karina dropped her things and rushed to her mother, knocking down a startled boy, who just happened to be Sirius Black. He looked at Karina and her mother with a sour face.
"Sirius, what's up?" James asked.
"Nothing, just look who's all happy."
"C'mon mate, your place can't be that bad."
"I'd like to see you live there…" Sirius mumbled.